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Who claimed what – mapped!
Friday 22nd May 2009, 8:25AM BST.
A virtual map has been created by a Shropshire technology firm, allowing people to see the extent of MPs’ expenses claims.
And the site developed by Shrewsbury-based Shoothill has already received more than 100,000 hits.
The company was inspired to map the data from the House of Commons as the expenses scandal rumbles on in order to add a new dimension to the debacle.
Rod Plummer, managing director of Shoothill, today said he was delighted to have so many hits on the map, which was published on Tuesday on MSN.
He said: “It’s a big issue and you can see how your MP compares to the next one and you can see all 650 in one map. You also get a lot of information about them.”
Alistair Bruce, senior content manager for MSN, said: “The map allows our users to quickly see how much their MP has claimed in expenses and what the regional variations are between MPs.”
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This map, (http://msn.shoothill.com), shows up these guys for what they have been up to.
General Election now… all of them out!
And preferrably the next second home they get will be at her majesty’s pleasure!
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I still don’t understand if I wrongly claimed for anything I would be in court and getting 6 – 18 months. I have read many news stories of unemployed people carrying on claiming unemployment benefit after they got a job and they get hit very severely in court yet our so called elected MP’s can get away with claiming 10′s of thousands of our money and get away with it.
Is this fair?
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Y Mab Darogan – I am in total agreement with what you have written, which is very unusual for me.
I would like further details to be published with regards to the staffing costs – we would then see how many family members are employed on generous salaries.
I would also stop any of those MP’s who are quitting at the enxt election due to issues around their expenses from claiming the transition allowance of upto £100,000 – that really does rub salt into the would.
The tax man should check them all to ensure that they have paid.
Also any second homes that the tax payer finances for these greedy MP’s the profit should come back to the tax payer.
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With you all the way on the “staffing” aspect Richard. This is the next thing that we really want to know about. What with Conway employing his son and Jaqui Smith the Home Secretary employing her husband at £40,000 a year ( what a liberty) this is surely likely to unearth a lot of questionable matters. Travel and Communication costs incurred also need dissecting – whilst things are on the boil, why not have the auditors do a searching look at every MPs expenses going back 5 years.
One Tory MP was complaining tonight on TV that this was torture by a thousand cuts and was very unfair – my response, hard luck, put up with it or give up being an MP.
It’s a can of worms from start to finish and every party is as bad as the other. Even the Lib Dems when one looks at the number of MPs they have, 11 of them have had observations raised on the amounts claimed – this is possibly a greater ratio than the Tories or Labourites.
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One can only hazard a guess as to the scale of fraud and criminal activity prior to 2004 when 1 million documents were shredded by Commons Staff illegaly after being requested under FOI rules! ……….. no one was prosecuted for this outrageous breach of the law and it is quite obvious that that politicians of all parties hold the electorate in the utmost contempt! ……………..
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